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UroCor, Unilab, AmeriPath, MedPartners, Epitope

Laboratory Management / By Robert Michel

UROCOR INKS PACT TO MATCH DIAGNOSTICS WITH THERAPEUTICS HERE’S A PIONEERING EFFORT to more closely link diagnostics and therapeutics into a single product package. UroCor, Inc. and Mallinckrodt, Inc. signed an agreement that allows Mallinckrodt to sell and distribute UroCor’s new radiation treatment for prostate cancer. UroCor’s product, ProstaSeed I-125, is a radioactive pellet used …

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Pap Smear Marketplace Shifting into High Gear

Laboratory Equipment / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: It took just four years to shake out the weakest competitors in the emerging field of automated cytology. Now only TriPath Imaging, Inc. and Cytyc Corporation remain in competition. Indications are that this will be a nasty battle. Pathologists and lab executives contemplating the purchase of either company’s Pap smear products can expect …

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California’s Physicians Face Financial Meltdown

Managed Care Contracts / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: It’s a what-if scenario that may come true. Healthcare providers in the Golden State are going broke at an astounding rate. Physicians seem to be the hardest hit, but signs indicate that hospitals are also heading toward serious financial difficulties. In a nutshell, a decade of draconian cutbacks to provider reimbursement have left …

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Capitated Contracts Losing Favor Within the Hospital Industry

The Dark Report / By Robert Michel

IT APPEARS THAT AN INCREASING number of hospitals in mature managed care markets like California and Colorado are rejecting capitated managed care contracts. If future events verify this trend, the experience of hospitals may demonstrate a way for clinical laboratories to reject capitated arrangements for laboratory testing in favor of other types of agreements. California …

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Hardball and Lowball in the Lab Industry

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / By R. Lewis Dark

CLIENTS OF THE DARK REPORT and attendees at our annual Executive War College know that we are advocates for tough competition, excellence in management, and integrity in service. After all, isn’t it true that the companies many Americans annually recognize as the most respected are known for these three qualities? Certainly the recent examples of …

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“September 20, 1999 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

Late Breaking Lab News / By Robert Michel

Here’s an interesting company to keep an eye on. Abaton.com, based in Minneapolis, is one of the early entrants in the race to offer web-based clinical network solutions at the point of care. Centrex Clinical Laboratories, Inc. of Utica, New York is purchasing Abaton.com’s product for lab test ordering and reporting. Called ClinLabs.com, the product …

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Bi-Coastal Powerhouse Formed by Lab Merger

Laboratory Management / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Changes to healthcare continue to stimulate responses from independent commercial laboratories. This time it’s a merger of Las Vegas-based Associated Pathologists Laboratories with American Medical Laboratories of Chantilly, Virginia. This combination creates the third-largest commercial laboratory organization in the United States and shows that size is still important. CONSOLIDATION OPPORTUNITIES continue to fuel …

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Ten Management Myths Misled Clinical Laboratory Executives

Laboratory Management / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: We offer our second installment about the ten management myths which led the clinical laboratory industry astray during the 1980s and 1990s. Regretfully, clients responding to part one of this series tell us that these management myths remain alive and well—and continue to steer many well-intended but misguided laboratory managers in the wrong …

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Pathologist Income Symposium, Healtheon, Biogenetics, Healthworks Alliance

Laboratory Management / By Robert Michel

PATHOLOGIST INCOME SYMPOSIUM DATES ARE NOVEMBER 12-13, 1999 SCOTTSDALE IS AGAIN SLATED TO HOST the upcoming private Pathologist Income Symposium, scheduled for November 12-13, 1999. This year’s symposium tackles the toughest of all topics: increasing the compensation paid by hospitals for pathology Medicare Part A technical services. Compelling case study presenters will offer effective techniques …

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Finally: Respect for Cytyc As Aetna OKs ThinPrep®

Laboratory Billing / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Here’s an important development in the battle to get the healthcare community to accept new technology for the preparation of Pap smears. Aetna/U.S. Healthcare announced that it would cover the monolayer preparation tests offered by Cytyc and AutoCyte. Aetna’s decision makes it more difficult for other insurers to refuse reimbursement for this test. …

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